Late Nite FDL: The Glory of the Lurkers

There's a silent majority of you out there who read this blog daily who never leave a comment. When you delurk, occasionally, you often say something like, "I don't have anything to say that other people don't say better, or have not already said." You also say things like, "People here are so informed and they talk about things I don't understand, using special terms and language: it's intimidating!"

But you are the best of this site. You've given almost half a million dollars to great, progressive candidates this cycle through our Blue America page. You make phone calls, talk to your friends about politics, write letters to the editor, etc.

Bit by bit, person by person, you are changing this country for the better. The only reason anyone pays any attention to what Jane or Christy or TRex or I or our other site writers say here is because you read the site, and because we share common values together. If and when we are able to pressure the establishment to change, it's because the establishment knows you are here with us, behind us. This home made musical video above comes from JayClew, one of you, who wrote and performed it. I love it. You guys are fantastic, talented people.

I just want to use tonight's post to thank you, to recognize you and all you do. I also want to invite you lurkers to feel free tonight to ask any question on your mind about the coming election season. We in the community will be extra careful tonight to answer questions anyone has, even if they seem to experienced commenters to have been asked and answered a while ago in the community. Not everyone has been here with the community a long time, and many of us continue a conversation forgetting we have many new potential friends joining us in midstream.

As I've mentioned before, I'm just a commenter plucked from the comments by Jane and Christy last Spring to help with some spot front page duty, when the blog was really just the two of them 24/7, and they were worn out. Every front pager here started out as a commenter somewhere, and I have no doubt some of you will spin off other blogs in the future, perhaps local political blogs for your state the way the Connecticut crew has done, or the Montana crew, or the Colorado crew. . . you get the idea.

Pachacutec

Pachacutec did not, as is commonly believed, die in 1471. To escape the tragic sight of his successors screwing up the Inca Empire he’d built, he fled east into the Amazon rain forest, where he began chewing lots of funky roots to get higher than Hunter Thompson ever dared. Oddly, these roots gave him not only a killer buzz, but also prolonged his life beyond what any other mortal has known, excluding Novakula. Whatever his doubts of the utility of living long enough to see old friends pop up in museums as mummies, or witness the bizarrely compelling spectacle of Katherine Harris, he’s learned a thing or two along the way. For one thing, he’s learned the importance of not letting morons run a country, having watched the Inca Empire suffer many civil wars requiring the eventual ruler to gain support from the priests and the national military. He now works during fleeting sober moments to build a vibrant progressive movement sufficiently strong and sustainable to drive a pointed stake through the heart of American “conservatism” forever. He enjoys a gay marriage, classic jazz and roots for the New York Mets.